Something Ends, Something Begins
by bhut
Summary: Set after "The Serpent's Shadow". The Egyptians are at peace and Set just doesn't like that. Can Bast stop him before he starts new problems?
1. Chapter 1

**Something ends, something begins**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Rick Riordan™._

And so it came to pass that Ra the Solar-Faced god vanquished Apophis the Embodiment of Evil deep into the Duat, and the gods of Egypt withdrew, leaving the mortals live to their hearts' content.

Except for Set. He had withdrawn away from the main celebration, with a bowl of green grapes (organic, of course), to further emphasize his sour grapes attitude (no duh).

But in reality the Defiler of the Dead was thinking – after all, he was Set, not Sobek or Hapi, who really did not think at all about anything.

In this particular instance the Defiler's main line of thought was – where it all went right? (Right for Horus that is.) It appeared to be a very simple plan, after all – to use his new freedom to establish his own kingdom, preferably in the desert, while the rest of the family squabbled between each other and Osiris was safely entombed in his sarcophagus. Simple, right?

Sadly, Apophis decided to hijack it, and to repeat it over and over again until Ra came back, and recognized Horus' right to the throne, and Isis' right beside him. That was annoying. Imitation may be the most sincere form of flattery, but Set hated flattery. Flatterers and copycats too, for that matter.

"It was a simple plan," Set mused, "a simple plan. So why Apophis did not come up with it on his own? It's annoying!"

Simplicity, Set mused, was the key. The gods of Egypt were a rather simple folk, even if one included him – unlike the Greeks they didn't have a long, complicated interaction with mortals: the latter either worshiped them or not, and if the later was the case (as it was, more or less, for the last 2000 years), then the gods of Egypt were self-sustaining – Egypt itself believed in its gods (and may actually be one – father Geb _was_ rather tight-lipped about this.)

Now, Set had no problems with being self-sustained (as far as the gods went) – it did made them independent from the mortals, had enabled them to survive without any worship, and will enable them to survive now that Apophis was gone and they and mortals didn't need each another anymore.

With other gods, Set knew, it was different. Without ties to humans the Greeks, for example, would just fall as a pile of inert (and mostly ordinary) marble and bronze, and their humans… well, you just had to look at the Dark Ages to see what happened to them.

So, Set mused, where did it leave them? More importantly, where did it leave _him_? As a part of Horus' improved court? An eternity of – what was that word?

"Isolationism?" Set wracked his memory. "No, that's not it. Simplicity? That's not it either! Boredom? No, not quite right as well…"

"Set!"

"...Shu. I was just thinking about you," the God of all Egyptian Evil turned to face the newcomer. "What does the God of Kings want from me?"

"Nothing," the God of all Egyptian Winds replied with a sniff. "I wanted to talk to you about Anubis."

"Of course. Whenever I am not recognized as the father of all the jackals, then it is remembered that Anubis is my son. Why won't you speak to my wife about this?"

"The lady Nephthys is currently in the Nile-"

"You mean the river or the state of mind? Usually it is the later-"

"The river. We are very distressed that she hasn't yet surfaced to pay homage to the Great House nor to learn that your son has taken a host at such a young age, an imperfect host and to be close to a mortal as well-"

This did it. Set wasn't quite sure what he was going to do in his future, but it was most certainly _not_ resting on someone else's laurels (Ra or Horus – Set didn't care at the moment) for several centuries or even millennia in the future and dealing with the likes of Shu or his wife. And speaking of her…

If Shu had half the wits of Bast, or Bes, or even Tawaret, he would have realized that the sudden flicker of idea in Set's eyes was not anything good – not for anyone, including himself. "Hold onto this, would you?" the superior (in status) god told Shu, even as Shu's wife Tefnut (completely different from Nut, the goddess of the sky) made her appearance.

"Shu, what was that all about... Shu, what are you holding?"

"My dear?" Shu looked down and saw that the bowl of grapes became a bottle of wine instead – and he was married to a teetotaler. "Oh dear. Curse you, Set!"

But the latter was already far away.

/

Getting out of the palace was the easy bit – everybody else was busy celebrating Horus' enthroning and Ra's return and restoration. Everyone else, that is, but Bast, who was engrossed with her ball of yarn at the moment. Still, as Set was going by, she stopped and looked enquiringly in his direction.

"And where you're going?"

"Out," Set said curtly: he doubted that he would be missed much or for long at the court, even after Shu would complain to Horus or Isis that he was set up. "There is just too much for me back inside."

"Of course, of course. Well, stay away from the lake – Bes and Tawaret want some private time-"

"Got it," Set said brightly. "Enjoy your ball of yarn!" and he briskly began to walk away from the lake, whirling his staff. That was a mistake – Bast was a contrary and curious goddess and within several moments she was right behind him.

"And where are you going, Lord of Carrion?" she insisted, already looking halfway ready to fight.

Instead of replying Set acted, and that was his second mistake: he pulled a wound-up toy mouse from his pocket (he was dressed in the more modern version of his clothing, complete with pockets) and released it. Bast squealed "Mousie!" and followed suit.

Set continued on his path and several moments later Bast re-appeared - in front of him, this time. "What are you up to?" she continued, spitting out the mouse. "You never tried this hard to get rid of me-"

Now it was Set's turn to stare. "Get rid of you? Ubasti, the last person I tried to get rid of was my brother – the one called Osiris – and I even made a sarcophagus for him and everything. Have I done anything remotely like that to you?"

"You gave me a toy mouse," Bast responded with the full power of female logic. "Nobody has ever given me a toy mouse. And it's you – you never give anything without wanting something in reply-"

"All I want," Set snapped (female logic always gave him a headache), "is for you to go away! I plan to sneak out of here-"

"You want to leave the Duat?" Bast gasped and Set realized that the cat goddess had outmaneuvered him. "Why? It is all over, Apophis is gone! The story's done-"

Set stared and under his gaze Bast quailed.

"That's it," Set muttered crossly. "That's what been wrong. It was always about Apophis and time. The Embodiment of Evil was in a rush, he manipulated me to rush, and everything was rushed." He grew thoughtful. "Something big is going on, something – or some big event – may be going on, and the Embodiment of Evil tried to take it over, just as he took over _my_ plan." His eyes narrowed. "Something big will be going on, and we have graciously removed ourselves from the scene. No. I am Set. Father of Jackals, Defiler of the Dead and so on, but not an ignoramus!"

"What are you talking about? You're insane!" Bast hissed, her hair standing up on the end.

Instead of replying Set just set her aside and walked towards the edge of the Duat. Soon enough he reached and began to sketch a rough outline of a door upon it.

"No! Set!" Bast forgot all the decorum and went for a physical interaction, grabbing Set by a sleeve. "You aren't destroying all of this hard-won peace-"

"Exactly!" With a flick of his fingers Set made Bast fall on her butt. "I'm just leaving the Duat for a while and walking this world _properly_, to see what is going on. No destruction here indeed!"

"But you can't leave-"

"I am the strongest of all gods under Ra," Set replied calmly. "You want to see what I can and can't do? Follow me." He flicked his staff around, forming it into a key, which he then used to open his sketch of a door in the Duat and leave.

Frowning beyond her regular scope of emotion, Bast followed.

_TBC_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Rick Riordan™._

If there was a place that Bast _had not_ expected, when she followed Set through the Duat, it was Thoth's. The god of magic may not be a bird brain all of the time, but he was something of a recluse himself, keeping out of the others' way when possible, and now, with Set (and Bast) in his backyard, that was no longer possible.

"Defiler of the Dead," Thoth grimaced, even as his animal companions, baboons and ibises, chattered in the background. "The Wild Goddess. What brings you two to my place? The war with Apophis is over, the snake is gone, Ra has won-"

"Thoth. The Keeper of Knowledge. The Scribe of the Gods," Set said flatly, and clearly not in a friendly manner. "What is going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just in general, you insane hermit. What is going on in the world overall?"

Thoth stared. Set stared back. "Yes, I see where you're coming from," Thoth muttered and created three chairs (complete with parasols) for them to sit on. "Look, Seti- Set. The Greeks are currently having some sort of a problem of their own: their Mother Earth – Gaia – has gone berserk or something and plans to take them down."

"I remember when that happened the last time," Set said with a slight smile. "Some sort of a serpent-giant, as big as a whirlwind, a typhoon, took over their land and they had to flee to us for help. Good times." He paused. "So why nothing like this has happened this time?"

"Because, uh, Ra is gone? I mean, was gone?" Thoth swallowed, suddenly nervous. "Horus – he doesn't inspire the same confidence in the old Zeus-"

"Don't," Set sighed. "That Zeus may be a thunder god and thus inferior to lord Ra, but he came to us in the guise of a sheep, so if he must, he switched his honor _off_. Thoth, you didn't tell them off on the behalf of _all_ of us, did you?"

"Of course not," Thoth twitched, turning pale. "I would never do something like that-"

"Right," Set was not convinced. "Tell me, did you ever hear – 'from beneath, it devours'?"

"No, never-"

"Isn't that Apophis?" Bast asked, surprised. She did not know why Set was doing his best to keep the god of knowledge off balance, but some things were just obvious, especially to the same god of knowledge, you know?

"Exactly," Set nodded even as he shifted a grip on his staff. "Now, Scribe-"

"What is going on here?"

It was Bes. And Tawaret. And Bast, who realized that Set's infamous temper had been about to explode, but now was defused, exhaled in relief – sort of.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked instead.

"We followed Sobek and his posse," Bes shrugged.

"What posse?" Bast looked outside, followed by the others. Sure enough, Thoth's baboon entourage was currently playing basketball under guidance of Babi, while Nekhbet just sat on the fence in her vulture guise and kept score. Sobek, meanwhile, was just lounging in a swimming pool, merely blowing bubbles from his nose – a sure sign that the crocodile god was happy.

"They must've seen you following me," Set told Bast crossly. "Couldn't you have just stuck with your mouse?"

"What mouse?" Tawaret mechanically asked.

"That one," Set jabbed his finger in Bast's direction. Everyone, including Bast, took a look. Sure enough, the goddess of the family kept the wound-up toy, because, well, it _was_ still a mouse, and she _was_ a cat.

"Aw!" Tawaret's hippo face split in a grin. "You know what I think?"

"No." If Set's glare at Thoth had been angry, Bast's glare right now could probably petrify a basilisk. "Do tell." And her voice was one whisker's away from a lioness' roar that would explain to a hippopotamus just who here was the queen of the beasts.

"Right," Bes moved sideways between the two goddesses. "So, just what is going on here?"

"I came to Thoth for a private talk," Set said calmly, having recovered from his blowout, "and then Bast decided to come along, followed by them and followed by you. No one followed you, right?"

"No," Bes shook his head, "and Thoth, old buddy! What gives? You don't call, you don't write – everyone was having a party and you went out here for a small cookout? The nerve! You could've invited us at least!"

"Yes, well," Thoth still did not look particularly happy about the fact that even more deities beyond Set and Bast came over to his bachelor pad. "Set, Father of Jackals, why _have_ you come here?"

"I've been talking to Shu earlier-" everyone groaned at the mention of the stick-in-the-mud wind god, "-and I realized that I haven't seen my wife Nephthys around yet. Since Shu was talking to me about our son, I figured that she should be in on it as well. So, has anyone seen Nephthys?"

There was a pause as Bes and Tawaret thought this over. Bast, who was a faster thinker than they were, already was frowning.

"No, we haven't," Bes confessed. "Of all the gods and goddesses at the party... lady Nephthys wasn't one of them."

"Well. She might be, you know, um. With Osiris?" Tawaret said weakly – yes, everyone knew that while lady Isis loved Osiris, her lord and husband, lady Nephthys also loved Osiris, lady Isis' lord and husband. That certainly did not do any wonders for Set's temper and no one (except for Ra, Horus and maybe Isis) wanted to set that temper off.

"Osiris," Set drawled out his brother's name. "Right. Still. Thoth, old buddy old pal, could you use your divination to find out where she is _for sure_? Hmm?"

"Right," Thoth, who began to sweat buckets as soon as Osiris' name was mentioned, quickly pulled out a map of the world onto a table (which he created out of thin air, but hey, he was a god). "Here. Do you have anything of her?"

"Still got my wedding ring," Set said flatly.

"That'll do. Give- put it over here, would you?"

Set dropped the ring. Thoth said the spell. A series of hieroglyphs flashed in the air.

"There we go," Thoth said brightly. "Lady Nephthys isn't in the Underworld with lord Osiris; she's in, hm, 251st nome."

"And that is?"

"Oh. It's, uh, Brazil. In South America," Thoth winced. "I don't know how she got there-"

"Nephthys has a way with water – she probably used that stupid "All rivers are one" spell," Seth grunted. "Hmm. Now what to do with her?"

"Excuse me?" Bast frowned. It appeared to her that Set had either planned this whole situation out or just was playing it by his ear, but still was able to make all of them into his unwitting accomplices. "What do you mean?"

"Look, a mouse," Set said absent-mindedly (not!) as he produced another wound-up toy out of air. "And it got catnip, too!"

Bast's face twitched with her titanic effort not to be distracted, but she still kept on glaring at Set.

"Fine," Set relented, "spoil my fun." He twitched his fingers. "I think that I'll be giving Amos Kane a call – I finally found some use for him."

_TBC_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_Disclaimer: See previous chapters._

"...And this is why the House of Life goes to Canada to celebrate Canada Day every year," Zia Rashid, the first scribe of the House of Life, Sadie Kane's BFF (outside of Britain) and Carter Kane's girlfriend finished telling a rather informative tale to the siblings.

And speaking of them, they just sat there, staring at Zia with their mouths wide open. "Seriously?" Carter found his voice first. "Seriously? Canada? Is there even a branch of the House in Canada?"

"Well, we have to sneak over the Alaska-B.C. border," Zia replied before relenting. "Carter, seriously, there is – or rather was, a branch in Toronto until Apophis, as you have told me-"

"Sorry," Carter quieted down, "sorry. I guess it was slightly hard to keep track as we constantly raced through time and space to beat Apophis-"

"Through _time_?"

"Yes, from the present into the future," Carter tried to smile. "Um, the guys in my science club find this sort of thing amusing?"

"Yes, and they also wonder why there are no girls in the club either," Sadie rolled her eyes. "Anyways-"

"Anyways," Carter carefully shifted the subject, "how's life under uncle Amos? He's doing a good job as a Chief Lecturer, right?"

"Yes, quite," Zia nodded primly, "though there was a number of jokes regarding this, what's his name? Hamnet? Omlet?"

"Hamlet, you mean?"

"Exactly. Anyways, it's all over now, now that the Great House-"

"Please don't," Carter shook his head. "I know I'm the pharaoh and all, but right now I feel less of a king than Simba did, at my age?"

"Simba? Who's that?"

"The Lion King?"

"Say what?"

"The Lion King," Sadie sighed. "It's an American movie, made by Disney. Basically, it's the same Hamlet, but with animals!" she grinned, then remembered that Zia still tended to get somewhat confused by the popular culture of the modern times. "Not that Carter feels anything like Hamlet, do you, Carter?"

"No," Carter gave his sister an evil eye. "But I don't feel like the pharaoh either. I mean, just in lay person's terms, what's the pharaoh's relationship with the House is supposed to be?"

"Ok, first of all," Zia turned to Sadie, "I'm not that far 'out of it', not to understand that Carter doesn't feel threatened or anything. And second of all," she turned to Carter, "I think I see where you're coming from... that's the modern lingo, right?"

Carter shrugged.

"Right. Anyways, if what Sadie says was true, even Chief Lector Iskander agreed that it was time for a change, which is where Carter is coming from, right?"

Carter sighed. "I ought to kill Sadie for trying to teach you the 'modern lingo' while still not used to it herself. Anyways-"

"Did I miss anything?" Amos Kane, the Chief Lecturer himself came out of the portal and sat at their table.

Carter kept quiet. On one hand, the routine of the House that was its daily life outside of the apocalyptic events was, well, nice. He certainly liked routine; Zia generally did too, even if some of the ceremonies of the House were also somewhat weird. Uncle Amos, on the other hand, was more like Sadie, which meant that he definitely did not. Oh, he handled them well enough, and it was not anywhere as bad as his first Set possession, but even Carter could see that being the Chief Lecturer was somewhat depressing and wearing upon his uncle; it was almost the second case of 'Desjardins' syndrome, save that there wasn't a new Menshikov in the wings (Anubis had checked) and uncle Amos was doing it basically to himself by himself.

"So, what are you thinking about, young man?" Amos jovially asked his nephew.

"Um... that I should really prank Sadie for messing with Zia's head regarding the American mass culture?" Carter said the first thing that came to his mind and was kicked by Sadie for his troubles.

"As if!" the younger Kane sibling replied. "Anyways, uncle Amos, we were wondering if shouldn't try to match you with some young and eligible lady magician-"

"No," Amos said firmly. "Absolutely not. Your grandmother has already done that, and will be doing that, at every annual Kane reunion."

"...What?"

"Our other grandma, Sadie," Carter carefully. "I did write to you about me – and dad – going to the annual Kane reunions, remember? I even got you a photo, once."

"Good point," Sadie confessed, and pulled out a rather crumpled-up wallet-type photo from her pocket. "Which one is she, again?"

"The rather large and zaftig old lady that looks like uncle Amos," Carter said with a glance. "Acts rather like uncle Amos too."

"Hey! It is my mother you are talking about! And me! I don't behave like my mother!" the elder Kane yelled in a huff.

Zia giggled, looking amused at the Kane family antics, but that amusement vanished without a trace as Amos' face became distorted with a grimace.

"Am I at a bad time?" Set spoke through the Chief Lecturer.

"Yes," Carter recovered before his sister did. "What are you doing here, Evil Day? All of the gods have gone now that Apophis is troubling this world no more."

"Yes, well, it's me," Set grinned with Amos' face, and it was grotesque. "I'm here to ask you for a favor. Have you met my wife, lady Nephthys, Protector of the Dead, Avenging Mother, etc, etc?"

"Yes. Last time we did, she was in the river Nile," Carter continued to face the evil god. "What of it?"

"Well, now she is instead in Brazil, in the 251 Nome, instead," Set did not back down either. "Could you check up on her?"

"Yes we can," Sadie finally joined the discussion. "Why should we?"

"Because isn't that what the House does? Checks up on the errant deities," Set grinned. It was a nasty grin, and the fact that it was Amos Kane who was doing the actual grinning made it worse. "Besides, I got me an Eye – he should do something, if our partnership is to keep up!"

"Fine, I'll do it," Amos growled as he regained control of himself.

"Good." And Set withdrew.

"Well," Sadie tried to act chipper, but did not quite make it. "It looks like it's off to Brazil for us!"

Amos raised an eyebrow. "We?" he delicately asked.

_TBC_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

Sadie Kane

"So," I said brightly, "looks like we're going to Brazil. Awesome! Always wanted to see the jaguar and the armadill-o 'dilloing in his armor', as grandma Faust liked to read about. To me."

There was a pause as everyone else just stared at me, blankly. "It's Mr. Kipling?" I said helpfully. "Just so stories? Were rather popular in Britain at one time?"

"...Ok," Uncle Amos still did not get me, but decided to humour me all the same. "Anyways! You can't go – you've got school-"

"Uncle Amos?" Carter spoke up. "It's summer. BAG is closed until September. We're free – got free time, I mean."

"Yes, Carter, but no. You are the Great House now, you cannot just go off-"

"Uncle, are you trying to pull rank on me?" Carter's voice was breaking because that is apparently how teenage boys sound, and he sounded somewhat hilarious, but for some reason I was reminded of our dad when he was in an angry mood. "Because I can pull rank on you right back on!"

...Suddenly my older joke about the Lion King did not appear to be as funny. Carter and uncle Amos glared at each other, with their hackles almost raised, and I, for one, did not quite know what to do. Fortunately, Zia did.

"Please! Great House! Chief Lecturer! There's no need to act so... manly!" the first scribe of the House spoke up. "We can contact the Brazilian nome and see if _they_ can't do something about it!"

"Um, right, that's a good idea," both Carter and uncle Amos backed away from each other with relief. "Whom do we have there?"

"Joaquin Vasquez, and, um, I forgot. Chief Lecturer?"

"A native, Tikisoke something," uncle Amos said brightly, "and he's a water specialist, so maybe he should be the one in charge of the field work?"

"Let's first contact him, shall we?" Zia pulled out a scrying-eye bowl (as we learned later), filled it with water, and produced –

"An apple?" Carter said incredulously.

"Oh yes, we're talking about the New World," Zia nodded sagely and replaced the fruit with a pineapple, albeit a small one. "Now, Chief Lecturer, if you would do the honors?"

"Certainly," uncle Amos nodded, pointed his staff at the bowl and the pineapple, and said the appropriate spell. Immediately, the fruit began to roll above the bowl, the water inside it quivered, and we saw a scene inside the Brazilian nome's mansion, and it was bad.

OK, it was not Apophis-level bad. When the giant snake had his way, he just razed nomes to the ground, leaving behind the sign of Chaos. This was just... devastated, abandoned, as in our family basement, when grandpa Faust took grandma and me for a week in the country, and when we returned we found our basement flooded and had to hire a plumber to drain it.

"Really?" uncle Amos turned to me.

"Yeah. When the waters were drained, the basement had that same mildew-y and algae-y appearance," I replied before I had time to think. "Um, did I say the last part aloud?"

"Yes, you did," uncle Amos said thoughtfully. "And you raise some interesting points."

There was a pause as we thought this over.

"You don't think that Nephthys did that, do you?" I asked slowly. "I mean, she's _nice_! She helped Isis escape from Set when he had captured Osiris! She-"

"She is a goddess, Sadie," Zia said quietly, "and you must remember that gods aren't humans – they got different values, especially in modern times. Plus, if I when remember about the Vasquez family is correct-"

"It is," uncle Amos nodded. "Mr. – I mean senhor Vasquez senior is the greatest priest of Sobek in the modern times. And his relationship with the House of Life has always been uneasy." He paused. "Chief Lecturer Iskander was able to command the respect of the Vasquez family, but I am not him-"

"No. But you're still the Chief Lecturer and overall an amazing uncle," Carter said firmly. "Although Sobek... no, I don't like him."

"We don't like him. He tried to kill us, and with me he came really close," I supported him.

"Don't worry; senhor Vasquez is cool – according to Anubis anyways."

"Walter!" I yelled excitedly. "How are you – never mind."

"I'm stable, Sadie," my boyfriend gave me a sad smile. "What about Vasquez?"

"His son and other wizard might've been captured by Nephthys, but probably not," I replied.

"Um... can I have the long story?"

I exchanged looks with the others, and encouraged by their subtle glances told Walt (and Anubis) 'the long story'.

"...And I _don't_ think that Nephthys is behind this," I finished, glaring at uncle Nephthys. "She's nice."

"Yes, Sadie, but it is South America," uncle Amos shook his head. "I remember talking with Thoth few times about it – apparently he and some other Egyptian gods tried to get established there, but it didn't work."

"What?" I gaped.

"Sadie, come on – the pyramids?" Carter sighed. "Plus there were all those conspiracy theories that the god Quetzalcoatl was actually a westerner-"

"Actually, he was Thoth, just in disguise," uncle Amos corrected my brother. "But it didn't work out either."

"... Can we have the long story, please?" Carter said when it became obvious that the Chief Lecturer was not going to talk about this further.

"I didn't get it myself," uncle Amos admitted. "I and Thoth never been close, and he was remarkably close-lipped about this. Anyways, he confessed that other Egyptian gods too have visited the New World and had some sort of a personality problem-"

"Anubis didn't," Walter suddenly spoke up. "In fact he said that he has quite enjoyed it."

We all looked at him. "Sorry, he doesn't walk to talk aloud," Walter admitted. "I think that he has some parent problems."

"No duh! I mean, he is the son of Set and Nephthys! Set is evil, and Nephthys apparently has her own issues now!"

"You're not helping, Sadie," Carter pointed out, very unnecessarily.

"He is, however, more than willing to open up a portal for us."

"Sweet! I'll go and pack my bags!"

Uncle Amos just groaned.

_TBC_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

Sadie Kane

It is easy, when you have a god on your side, to have a portal from here to there as well. In our case, 'here' was the twenty-first nome, and 'there' was the two hundred and fifty first, but all the same, we came to it without any particular problems (actually, without any) and took a look around.

"Nope, still the same old mess we saw in Zia's scrying bowl," I commented as I came over to an external window and peeked from it. "Looks rather like our own Boston place when we returned to it after we stopped Set from unleashing his red pyramid – and also Apophis – onto the world. Before that, Set's magic had devastated _our_ nome-"

"Sadie, Walt and Zia heard this before, and I been there with you to begin with," Carter said crossly, as he and Zia chose to walk through the room instead. "There's no need to re-tell the past, unless you're imagining yourself to be a comic book heroine who wants to break the fourth wall..."

Stupid Carter did not finish, as something did break... not the fourth wall, but the floor, practically catapulting me out of the two hundred fifty first nome in the process.

"Sadie!" Walt cried and jumped after me. Fortunately for both of us, then, this nome was not built on top of a building as in case of the twenty first, but rather straight on the ground, like some sort of a lodge or a hut, so we didn't have to fall far, but fell straight onto our feet (okay, in my case it was more of onto my butt). "You okay?"

Considering that _he_ had landed on his feet I felt that this question was rather annoying. "What do you think?" I asked and gave him a glare.

"Well, uh," Walt looked away from me onto the surrounding countryside. "Hey you! Yes you! I saw you! Come out here so that we can see you! Stop hiding!"

"I wasn't hiding – my lord," came the reply as a being roughly my size emerged from the tropical bushes and bowed.

I stared. It – he – whatever – looked human... at least from the waist down. His legs were more like a grasshopper's - pointing backwards – and the eyes, when he pulled up his wide-brimmed hat burned like a pair of coals.

"What are you?" I asked the newcomer, but Walt – no, Anubis – answered instead.

"This, Sadie Kane, is a gnome."

Carter Kane

"Sadie, Walt and Zia heard this before, and I been there with you to begin with," Carter said crossly, as he and Zia chose to walk through the room instead. "There's no need to re-tell the past, unless you're imagining yourself to be a comic book heroine who wants to break the fourth wall..."

I did not finish as the floor burst apart as if waiting for my statement, sending Sadie outside head over heels!

"Sadie!" Walt cried and jumped after her. Zia and I were not so lucky, as the _shabti_ finally emerged from the hole in the floor. At least I hoped that it was a _shabti_, because otherwise it was just a giant tortoise and that... was not an improvement, actually.

"Zia!" I yelled as she readied her staff while I reached for my khopesh. "Hold on!"

I miscalculated. Instead of a khopesh I pulled out my pharaoh's crook and flail and hit the tortoise with them instead. "Bad animal!"

Instead of replying, the tortoise responded by withdrawing its head and legs back into its shell and becoming inert, I suppose. It certainly looked less active and dangerous

"I, uh, didn't mean to do that?" I smiled weakly to Zia.

"True, but being the Great House makes you the leader of the Pero Ankh as well," Zia nodded. "All of our creations are your subjects too, my lord, and will respond to your will."

I paused and looked at Zia. Ever since we've started dating each other (yes, I couldn't believe it either) she started to become less serious than before, and even began to crack jokes, but right now I was quite certain that she was fully serious.

"Can it – she – whatever – tell us what has happened to here, to Vasquez and the other guy?" I asked Zia, rather meekly. (Honestly, I never liked the idea of anyone bending my will, not even an artificial tortoise.)

"Of course not – it's a _shabti_, and not even the right kind, but the one made from clay!" Zia shook her head. "Its sole purpose was, or is, to guard this nome. Now that you – we – are here it doesn't have to do even that!"

"Ok, so what do we do now?"

"We look for clues?"

"Maybe we should look for Sadie instead?"

It was then that Sadie appeared, with Walt alongside her. "Carter, Zia?"

"Yeah?"

"You really should hear this."

And we did.

Sadie Kane

"Really?" I asked. "A gnome? With a 'g'?"

"Yes."

I stared at the gnome more intently than before. "So why uncle Amos doesn't like them?" I asked. "Yes, this one looks creepy, but not quite dangerous..."

"That's because we're not," the gnome kowtowed beneath his broad hat. "We are actually quite useful, lady mage!"

"Aha. Useful how? Never mind," I interrupted myself. "Can you tell us what has happened here to the magicians in this nome?"

"Um. Well. My lord," the gnome looked at Walter. "I didn't do anything."

"Acknowledged," Anubis spoke in his most serious voice. "What did you see?"

"It was some time ago, my lord," the gnome said again. "I was in the bushes, here, when it happened. The Mother of Waters emerged from the river and sang her song and the mages came to her to her as men always do."

"And you did nothing?" I asked crossly.

"No," the gnome gulped. "And what could I do? I'm just a gnome!"

"Fine," I snapped. "Then continue to be a gnome and stay here!"

"Yes, lady mage!" the gnome gulped and withdrew back into the shrubs, becoming basically invisible among them.

I turned to Walt/Anubis. "Boys, we really need to tell Carter and Zia this."

"Yes, Sadie."

"And yes, Anubis, I know that this is your mother-"

"You don't understand. We can exist in the world only via a host, human or otherwise. But if we stay in a human host the more human we become, and in an inhuman host – the more inhuman. Carter told me that he and Bes and Zia had left my mother in the river, which is composed of the element of water. I am really worried what this must've done to her."

"Right. Let's tell this to the others too."

And that was what we did.

_TBC_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, except for Kennedy Vasquez. She is an OC._

_Note: OC alert._

Carter Kane

When Walt and Sadie returned from their brief sojourn in the woods and told us the gnome's story (that is a gnome with a 'g') Zia grew thoughtful.

"What Walt – or Anubis – says about gods and their connections to the mortals is true," she said, "but I confess that I do not quite trust that creature – gnome. Both Chief Lector Iskander and monsignor Desjardins – I mean Chief Lector Desjardins – agreed that the elemental creatures are tricky and are not to be fully trusted."

"What are they?" Sadie did not back down exactly, but she did not really confront Zia either. "Are they like demons or what?"

Before Zia could reply we heard a sound coming from a river – a mechanical sound. It sounded rather like a vehicle – not a car, a motor boat or something – and sure enough when we looked out of the opening made by Sadie when the resident _shabti_ threw her out, a motor boat or a hovercraft or something like that had appeared from around a river bend, stopped at our shore and its passenger (also captain slash pilot, I suppose) disembarked.

It was a young woman, few years older than us (well, me – that makes her older than Sadie quite a lot), maybe uncle Amos' ago, probably younger, I do not know. Beyond Zia I do not really have much of an experience with women. Anyways...

Anyways the young woman disembarked and began to walk towards the two hundred and fifty first nome. Considered that Sadie had damaged it when she got kicked out by the _shabti_ its magic did not appear to be working... if it had been working from the start. When we looked at it in a greater detail, it was less of a mansion and more of a lodge (think Native American, not Freemason or anything like that) or a hut – not really unexpected in those parts and probably not in a need of a good disguise...

Anyways, I did get off topic, thanks for pointing it out Sadie. The young woman, she came within our line of sight, glared at us – none of us really thought of hiding behind the wall and said:

"Ok, you little monkeys, what is going on here, and where's my brother?"

It was hardly the sort of an opening line that made us want to be friends, but it did not make us want to be enemies either.

"Are you senhora Vasquez?" Zia asked instead.

The woman glared. "It's senhorita, thank you very much, and yes, I am. Are you his, er, fellow magicians?" she suddenly sounded less certain of herself than before.

"Yes we are," Zia said with more confidence now.

"So where is he?"

"Er, the gnome told us that Nephthys has taken him and his friend," Sadie piped up before Zia could reply.

Zia glared, senhorita Vasquez stared. "Are you talking about Iara, the mother of waters?" she (not Zia) asked.

"Yes," Walt, or rather – Anubis replied.

"That's not good," senhorita Vasquez began to mutter to herself. "Brother dearest can take care of himself, but his partner – not so much."

"Really?" Sadie would not shut up, but senhorita Vasquez did not appear to mind.

"Really. He is in tune with the entire natural world, if it was just him he would give even the mother of waters the slip and be already in your nome in Manaus, warning everyone that the mother of waters is on the warpath and entertaining them with his stories about his latest great escape, but his partner isn't quite up the par with him, so they're in trouble."

"What sort of trouble?"

"Mmm... When mother of waters kidnaps people they just disappear, and when they reappear, they are dead, their lips still bleeding from her kisses. The rest of the body is not pleasant to look at either," senhorita exhaled. "Kids, you're magicians, can't you, I don't know, use your magic to see if they're not dead yet?"

"Yes we can," Zia nodded. "We need a bowl, though-"

"Here it is," Sadie pointed to a scrying bowl in the corner of the lodge. Unlike ours back in Boston, this one was plain and wooden and had been used often as well.

"Good. Now we need some of their personal belongings," Zia continued.

"Let's see." In several long strides senhorita was right next to the hole in the wall, and with another quick movement she was inside the lodge without breaking a sweat. "What? I am a Vasquez, that is how we roll. Now, as for personal belongings, how about that?" She pointed to a photo on a wall that showed two young men – one clearly Native American, the other somewhat more European – holding hands and smiling.

"...Let's leave that as option B," Zia said after some thinking. "Using photos is too tricky for my tastes. Is there anything else?"

"Let me see," senhorita Vasquez walked over to the back wall, looked at it, grabbed an imaginary handle and opened... a very real door.

"What? I may have a veritable anti-talent when it comes to magic, but I _am_ a Vasquez," she explained as she went through the door and returned several minutes later with a pair of somewhat worn but still colorful socks. "Anyways, are these better? There's also underwear and his toy sloth, if you want more options."

"...What are you talking about?"

"This is their bedroom. What do you think I am talking about?"

"Sorry," Zia shook her head. "I guess I am not used to your quant American customs."

"Yes, well, that was a time when my family was more pro-USA in their politics," senhora Vasquez shrugged. "Guess I'm just lucky that I'm Kennedy, and not Bush, name-wise. Anyways, the socks?"

"Right," Zai gingerly grabbed them from the older woman (yes, Sadie, Zia is a woman, and I am sticking to this) and put them into the bowl before casting her spell.

That was when it all fell apart, and not just the bowl, (it fell apart like an orange peel), but everything, as Nephthys appeared in the middle of the room.

Mostly she appeared to be a very beautiful woman (though Sadie here says that when she saw Nephthys at Osiris and Isis' wedding Nephthys looked different), but also, I'm thinking, inhuman, and not just because she was made of water: her body was bending in ways that human bodies just couldn't bend, not without the humans dying in the process.

"Great Nephthys, Avenging Mother, Protector of the Dead," Zia began and Nephthys turned on her.

"You! I remember you! You and Ra, beating me mercilessly with your sunrays in that waterless desert! And you!" she turned to Sadie and I. "You are the children of that, that ghost who actually _can be_ with Osiris while I _can't_! And you!" she turned to Walt...

"Mother," said Anubis...

And Nephthys fell apart as well – into a puddle of water.

"We need to talk to uncle Amos," I said firmly. "Now."

Surprisingly, everyone agreed...

_TBC_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

Carter Kane

When we returned to our home nome, uncle Amos was already there, reading a scroll with hieroglyphs of some kind. I'm not as good with them as Sadie is, and I only caught a few of them – a hawk and several plant-like shapes, but then uncle Amos put the scroll away and looked at us.

"You're back," he said rather happily, "and you brought a friend?"

"Yes! This is senhora, I mean senhorita, Vasquez. She is the sister-" Sadie spoke up before I could.

"You brought a Vasquez here?" suddenly uncle Amos sounded much more like a Chief Lector and not a very happy one as well.

"Yes and why not?" even Sadie caught on that something was wrong.

"For several reasons," uncle Amos began, but senhorita Vasquez interrupted him.

"Why are you wearing the leopard pelt? What has happened to lord Chief Lector Iskander?"

"He, um, died. In his sleep. Some time ago, when Apophis tried to destroy the world," Zia explained before we could. "Then there was Michel Desjardins, but he also died, fighting Vlad Menshikov. Now Amos Kane – the man over there – is the Chief Lector."

"I see," senhorita Vasquez nodded and the silence was back.

"...Anyways," uncle Amos spoke up. "What has happened?"

"Nephthys is on a warpath, and if we do not appease her, people will get hurt." Walt – or perhaps Anubis – spoke for the first time since our disastrous interview with Nephthys. "Please, help?"

Uncle Amos exhaled and tension leaked out of the room. "Of course, Walt, Anubis. For that we need a boat."

"You could use mine," senhorita Vasquez spoke up. "Our parents... they wouldn't mind."

"We," uncle Amos grimaced, "need to make a special boat. Yours is slightly too modern for a magic ceremony." He paused and looked at her, askance. Senhorita Vasquez kept quiet, uncle Amos continued. "To build it, we need special magical tools...which are kept in two hundred and thirty-eighth nome, which is in Kamchatka."

"Where?"

"The heel of Russia, as father would say," senhorita Vasquez spoke up. "One of the least populated places in the world. What?" she added as we stared at her. "This is my father's homeland, you know, so I know things about it."

"But aren't you a Vasquez?"

"Father came to Mexico during the Caribbean crisis on a Party assignment and met my mother there. Love conquers all, and mother does not dislike communism either. They married and established a unit there, taking my mother's family name for different reasons. Now, since USSR is over and is not coming back, our family is staying in New World for good," senhorita Vasquez shrugged. "Anyways, if you're going to Kamchatka, I'm coming with you – there is no way I am letting my brother be saved by a group of children without adult supervision."

"Hey!" Sadie snapped. "We saved the world without any adult supervision, thank you very much?"

"Really?"

"Really! Well, uncle Amos helped, some – he is the Chief Lector, so he had to do something."

"Sadie," Zia interrupted. "That's unfair – Chief Lector did quite a bit, I can testify!"

"Thank you, Zia, for your support," uncle Amos said peevishly. "Look, miss-"

Senhorita Vasquez faced uncle Amos with a deliberate slowness. "No, you look. These children have saved the world – and being a part of the world that alone puts me in their debt. So there is no way I am letting you go on your own-"

"We didn't save the world to have anyone, including the world itself, to be indebted to us," I said quietly.

"I know," for the first time since we met senhorita Vasquez smiled quite warmly at me. "That's why you were able to do it, BTW. However, I am still coming with you – I promise to hang in the back and not embarrass you too much. Who knows? I might even be useful!"

"Fine," I relented, "you can come."

"Carter?" uncle Amos now sounded really unhappy. I looked at him:

"Yes?"

I am not sure what happened next – possibly, some manly posturing or a staredown; in any case, uncle Amos backed down first.

"Very well," he said, still sounding unhappy, "miss Vasquez can go with us."

"Thanks," I nodded, feeling rather unhappy myself for some reason – as if I won and lost something at the same time, before turning and facing senhorita Vasquez. "Ok, you can go."

"Thank you," she said with a small smile. "How exactly can we go there? Brother dear said that you had limits."

"But I don't," Walt – or rather Anubis – said suddenly. "Behold!"

And we beheld. One moment we were back in the home nome, the next – in the frozen tundra.

Only it was not frozen, but quite melted – into a giant swamp, complete with Russian blackflies and mosquitoes that began to buzz around us with a predatory look on their faces.

"Wonderful," senhorita Vasquez muttered. "Does anyone have anti-mosquito repellent-"

"I do!" Zia suddenly said. "Behold!"

And we beheld. All of the local mosquitoes abruptly decided that Zia is their version of chocolate cake and charged at her in a single solid dark mass that was bigger and heavier than Zia herself was. Zia, seeing this, shrieked.

"Stop!" senhorita Vasquez yelled, and the mosquito mass stopped. So did we and looked at the senhorita. The latter was holding a ball of mud that was glowing bright white. And as the mosquito mass rotated to face this ball, senhorita Vasquez threw it away from us.

The mosquito mass charged at that glowing ball of mud as if it was Zia-cake. (Do not tell that to Zia, Sadie!) In several moments they enveloped it completely.

"Um," said someone (probably me).

Then the mosquitoes were ambushed by a large flock of birds, from sparrow-sized songbirds to ducks and geese. The birds were hit by various meat-eaters – weasels, wolves, wolverines, arctic foxes and even a polar bear or two. The meat-eaters...

It was then I realized that I was being led away by Sadie and Walt (senhorita Vasquez was taking care of Zia).

"Kids," she said sternly, "I understand, really, that you like to use high-profile solutions to your problems. Sometimes, though, they have side effects, such as channeling too much positive energy, as we have seen."

"Yeah, we've seen," Sadie muttered.

"Anyways, where are we going?"

"Right there," Walt muttered and cast a spell. "You see?"

And we saw. A lodge, similar to the one that we have seen in Brazil. Only the one in Brazil did not have a shadow serpent crawling around it.

"Oh dear," somebody said. Probably, it was I.

_TBC_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters belong to me, but to their appropriate owners._

Sadie Kane

For several moments we just stared at the shadowy serpent and it stared right back at us. Eventually, Carter broke the silence. "Impossible! You cannot be back! We've execrated you!"

"Ah, little pharaoh," the serpent hissed with a clear menace, "that may be so, but I am Isfet! I am the shadow of Ma'at and I will always Be, as long as there is the world." It paused and added. "Though you have diminished me and hurt me greatly, I grant you that – but I will be back!"

"What is it talking about?" senhorita Vasquez chose the wrongest time to speak up (and yes, I known that 'wrongest' is not a real word, Carter, to shut up!). "What is it, anyways?"

"This is Apophis," Carter said weakly. "Well, his shadow – sort of. Um, it prevents us from getting the tools."

"Mmm," senhorita nodded sagely. "Fascinating. What if I asked him nicely, something along the lines of – Please, Mr. Apophis, can we get our things and leave? You can remain here undisturbed as much as you want!"

"No!" For some reason Apophis seemed even more angry at this polite suggestion than ever before. "I am Apophis! I am the shadow of the world! I do not do politeness!"

"Really?" senhorita's eyes narrowed. "Why is that? You would rather sound like a kettle boiling over?"

"Exactly!"

There was a pause as we all stared at the infuriating serpent as if it was mad – mad as in, you know, wearing underpants on your hand and nothing else, and not mad as in the mad scientist who plans to destroy the world, mind.

"I get it!" Carter said suddenly. "You're not inherently evil; you're just selfish, not unlike Set. Only Set can learn to get along with others and to care about them – well, about some of them, and you cannot. That's why you're so miserable!"

"What did you say?" Apophis whirled around to look at Carter. "Pharaoh, if you think that your status gives you the privilege-"

"Hey! We're not done yet, you glorified masculine principle!" senhorita yelled at Apophis (seriously, we are the House of Life, we do not need assistance!)

"What did you call me?" Apophis whirled back to her, angrier yet. "You dare-"

Senhorita Vasquez threw something straight into Apophis' mouth, who instinctively snapped it shut. For several moments afterwards, too, there was silence, and then Apophis uncoiled from the local nome, stuck his head into a nearby bog, and began to vomit, rather like the upper-grade schoolboys back in Boston.

"What did you do to him?" Carter asked, but before he could receive a reply, Walt ran.

Straight into the nome-lodge, just as Apophis appeared to have collected himself and turned around... only to see Walt close the door behind him from the inside.

"Fools," Apophis hissed as he raised his body upwards and spread out his hood. "Now your friend is trapped and I will destroy you-"

"Ahem," was the reply, and it was not from us. Rather it was from a small Arctic fox that had been shadowing us for a while, ever since Zia tried to do that stunt with the local mosquitoes and it backfired. "Dear guest, this just crosses the line."

For once, I was stunned into silence. Sure, it was a talking fox, but it still was just a small one, hardly one to challenge Apophis!

The snake, however, did not think so, as he turned to face the newcomer. "Mother Russia!" he hissed, "what are you doing here?"

"This may be my heels, but it is still me," the Arctic fox replied, "and you, dear guest, are not welcome anymore!"

"So?" Apophis hissed but his heart (even he did not have one to begin with) was not in it anymore.

The fox (Mother Russia?) just stared and after several moments of that stare Apophis just was gone: one moment he was here, the next – he was not.

"...What was that?" Carter asked no one in particular as the fox scratched behind its ear.

"Me," it replied in a decisively feminine voice. "And by the way, oh Egyptian king, the only reason why I haven't yet evicted all of you yet is because you have one of my own among you."

"Yes, well," senhorita Vasquez looked uncomfortable, "my father may be from here, but I am not much of a Russian. Or a communist, for that matter."

"My dear," the fox trotted over to her, "it's the spirit that matters. As long as you and your children feel that this is home, it will be." The fox paused. "Though Sobek isn't the worst god to follow, either – he's just lonely and misunderstood."

"Misunderstood?" I exploded: who did this Mother Russia think she was? Carter was the only know-it-all in my world and he was more than enough. "He's a giant humanoid crocodile with buffalo horns! He almost killed me!"

The fox turned and gave me a look. It was hard to tell, because her eyes were somewhat small, but it looked like Mother Russia was not very impressed with me.

And then Walt came out. "I got them!" he yelled loudly.

"Well, hello there, handsome!" the fox purred, and suddenly she was a woman, dressed in actually rather concealing clothing, but very, well, womanly, and she sort of looked good, too, and she was sort of flirting with Walt too – or was it with Anubis? In any case-

"Hello to you too, ma'am," Walt (or Anubis?) said quickly, as he was suddenly at my side. (Yeah, it probably was Anubis.) "Um, I think that we have to go-"

"So soon?" the fox-woman seemed genuinely upset, but at the same time she somehow understood something too. "Very well, if you got to go, then you got to go-"

...And suddenly we were back at the twenty-first nome once more.

_TBC_


	9. Chapter 9 (part 1)

**Chapter 9 (part 1)**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

Carter Kane

"Back? So soon?" uncle Amos raised one of his eyebrows. "That must be a new record even for you."

"Yes, well, we _are_ team Kane," Sadie said brightly.

"And we had help from the local _genius loci_," Zia added, looking at Sadie askance.

"That too," Sadie agreed, probably because she did not quite get what Zia was talking about. "Anyways, uh, Walt has delivered – so how we're going to build the boat?"

"It's one of the Lector tricks," uncle Amos said proudly. "First, we get the tools out-"

"Wait!" senhorita Vasquez suddenly spoke up. "Shouldn't we get outside first? It may be because I am a woman, but this sounds like an outside activity to me, building boats and all. I mean, how otherwise we will get it to Brazil?"

There was a rather sheepish pause as we tried to explain to her that she was correct, but-

"Well, um, I was distracted by your radiant beauty to think straight?" uncle Amos offered the first suggestion, and there was another pause. See, senhorita Vasquez – just like the rest of us – was covered in squashed tundra mosquitoes and mud and also smelled faintly of eau de Arctic fox, so she was far from radiant, at least in a conventional sense, and she knew it.

"You know," she said conventionally, as she began to wrap up her sleeves, and I doubted that it was to improve her spellcasting, "when my parents were younger, father once told mother something similar in similar circumstances too. Mother was not amused and did her best to explain that to father. Father being whom he is, of course, managed to get the best of her, as always, but they ended up getting married all the same. Anyways, getting back to you-"

"You have to excuse uncle Amos," Sadie said quickly. "He may be chief lector but he's also a Kane and we – they - aren't smooth talkers..."

"...Right. Um, you have a bathroom here for me to at least wash my face and hands?" senhorita Vasquez grimaced.

"Yes!" Sadie said brightly and led her away.

(It should be noted that while there are some spells to clean yourself up magically, we never got the hang of them, plus it is just as simple to clean yourself up the old-fashioned way...)

"So, uh, we aren't smooth talkers?" I said the first thing that came to my mind.

"Yes! But still loveable!" Zia said brightly and actually gave me a kiss on the cheek. I blushed.

(Sadie, give me the microphone back!)

Sadie Kane

When we returned, everything was the same, save that my brother was grinning like some doofus.

"So," uncle Amos said, further proving my statement, even though that wasn't necessary, "is everyone, uh, ready to actually go to Brazil?"

"Uncle Amos?" Carter shook himself out of whatever daydream he was currently in. "You're coming with us?"

"Yes," uncle Amos replied firmly. "I am!"

"Why?"

"Because this _is_ the spell for the Chief Lector, similar to the summoning of Sekhmet."

"We are not going to be summoning her, are we?" Carter grimaced.

"No."

There was another pause, as everyone appeared to be struggling for things to say, until Walt broke the it. "Let's go," he suggested rather tensely, and we went, remembering that it was his mother – well, Anubis' mother, but the lines between them appeared to be blurring (and that was worrying to me) – on the line.

_TBC_


	10. Chapter 9 (part 2)

**Chapter 9 (part two)**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters_

(Sadie Kane)

And so, we ended up back in Brazil. Once again we were hit by humidity and heat: normally the nomes, according to Zia and uncle Amos have their own internal climate control, but the two hundred and fifty-first nome had been broken for a while now, so climate control was no go.

"Ok, uncle Amos, do your magic!" Carter said brightly, as the clay tortoise shabti glared at us from its corner. It may have been brought to heel by Carter and Zia somehow, but it still was not very friendly towards us.

Uncle Amos, who until now was clearly busy assessing the damage brought by us and the shabti, and, possibly, Nephthys (though I hope not – what I can remember about her, she was nice and helped Isis escape from Set long ago), looked at Carter, muttering something about "random vs. funnel" under his breath.

"Pardon?" Carter did not appear to have caught this either.

"Nothing," uncle Amos shook his head and turned to Walt: "Could you please put the tools _outside_ the nome building?"

"Sure," Walt nodded (he did not really need Anubis to make himself sound gloomy, but it was obvious that he and Anubis were in the middle of something as well), and complied with the request without any arguments.

"Is he feeling all right?" uncle Amos frowned.

"If you're talking about Walt, he's still under a curse; if about Anubis, then remember that his mom has apparently kidnapped two guys for I know not what," I said archly. What? I hate when someone belittles my boyfriend besides me. (Not that I belittle Walt, Carter, and yes, 'belittle' was the word of the day. Now give me back the microphone!)

"Ah," uncle Amos nodded, frowning even more, "I see. Walt?"

"They're outside," Walt replied as he got back through the hole in the wall (apparently no one had thought of fixing it. Oops.)

"Splendid," uncle Amos nodded sagely and walked over to the hole; he thrust his staff forward and spoke the spell – and the tools instantly came to life. Axes, chisels, drills, saws, things I do not even know the names off – they jumped out of the box and attacked the nearest trees as if they were piranhas and the trees were swimmer or bathers. (What? We _are_ in Brazil.) They moved almost faster than the eye could see, and before long, among the mounds of wood chips and sawdust there was a proper Egyptian boat. Or ship.

There was actually one little problem-

"Chief Lector? It's on land," Zia said quietly.

"Well, it is supposed to be in a dock," uncle Amos confessed, "but-"

"Oh, _that_ is easily fixable," senhorita Vasquez spoke up for the first time since uncle Amos had tried to compliment her. She took off her jacket and in several strides was behind our boat of misery, before she began to push it into the water.

And the boat complied. It was really quite amazing – even for us, who got used to the weird and wonderful by now, to see the rather regular-sized young woman push this really big boat (it was as long as the Queen of the Nile, though probably not as heavy, but still, it was _big_) without even breaking a sweat or a pause in her stride. Within 8 minutes or so the boat was fully in the water, bobbing in the shallows, and senhorita Vasquez turned to face us, as we were staring at the site, quite impressed.

"What? I am a Sobekite," she shrugged, going for nonchalance, but not quite succeeding. "My people are known for their strength."

"Yes, but it was still very impressive," uncle Amos insisted as we joined her at the river's edge.

"Yes, and the boat is very impressive too," Walt spoke up trying to ease the tension.

It was when the gnome king arrived. Now earlier, Walt and I did run into one of the more ordinary gnomes, and contrary to my expectations, at least, the bloke was at least as big as I was – not exactly a 'runt', you know? Of course, uncle Amos is a big man, maybe as big as dad was, so maybe to him gnomes are runts, but the gnome king was something else.

He was as big as a regular man was, he rode some sort of a wild pig, he brandished an iron pitchfork, and he had those reversed legs as the regular gnomes did. Oh, and he had those burning eyes as well – maybe not quite intimidating as Set had been when we've seen him for the first time in the museum, but still, it was a very good try.

And he (the gnome king, not Set, wherever he was), was not happy.

"Chief Lector!" he addressed uncle Amos, while pointing his pitchfork in a generally unfriendly way. "For what reason do you assault our lands?" And he sounded really pompous too.

"My apologies," uncle Amos did not sound particularly apologetic at all. "It's just that the Avenging Mother is in a rather foul mood and needs to be appeased, nothing more."

"Aye, when the Lady gets into a lonely mood, troubles occur as ripples across the surface of waters," the king agreed. "Your indiscretion, Chief Lector, is forgiven." And he swung his pitchfork in a grand way.

Instinctively, we looked. The king had a point – the magic tools (currently they were lying back in their box) have really devastated the local woodland, creating a textbook example of deforestation. I, for one, felt bad – so did Carter.

"We're sorry," he said softly. "It was necessary, but if we can make up for it somehow?"

"No need, oh Great House," the gnome king replied. "Unlike human works, magic can repair magic – remember that." He swung his pitchfork and immediately new trees and shrubs began to grow in place of the cut-down ones: it was magic, and it was very impressive, even by House of Life's standards.

"Remember this, Chief Lector," the gnome king glared at uncle Amos, whirled his hog steed around and vanished back in the rainforest.

"So," uncle Amos tried to look nonchalant, but he clearly had not enjoyed this encounter very much. "Anyone else wants to say something?"

"You were really brave now," senhorita Vasquez said quietly, but uncle Amos heard her, and twitched.

"Yes, well, er-"

"Really smooth, uncle," I sighed. "So what do we do with the boat now that it is in the water?"

"Right, that is _simple_," uncle Amos replied with an evident relief. "All aboard!"

Obediently, we climbed aboard the boat, uncle Amos said the magic words... and we sank.

_TBC_


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

Carter Kane

Sadie!

You are, like, the worst storyteller ever! We did not _sink_ – we _submerged_ as a submarine does, though yes, we have never been on one: this was one thing that we missed while rescuing the world from Apophis.

Anyways, where were we? We departed from the shore. The wind was actually blowing in our sails, some small birds – hummingbirds – were flying around our vessel, uncle Amos was standing at the prow, almost looking as if he was steering, and the rest of us were lounging around as the small spheres of light, magical sailors to run magical boats, were going about doing their business. _That_ was when we submerged.

"Are we supposed to do that?" Sadie asked as the water level began to rise.

"Pardon?" uncle Amos looked towards her.

"You know, sink, go under, go down with our ship," Sadie elaborated. "Because we are apparently drawing water-"

"Oh yes, we are," uncle Amos caught on. "We're travelling to lady Nephthys' underwater palace – key word is underwater, Sadie. It cannot be reached from the water's surface, unless lady Nephthys wills it so."

Sadie thought this over. "Shouldn't her underwater palace be under Nile, uncle? And yes, I'm talking about the river in Egypt – this time."

"To lady Nephthys, to the other gods, and to the House of Life all rivers and waters are one, just as all the roads are one," uncle Amos shook his head.

"Then we could've done this back in Egypt, or Russia, or even in Boston?" I spoke up. "Because if it is so, then we could've done it without travelling there and back again."

"...No, Carter," uncle Amos gave me a look. "This is actually the closest path – in this case. If lady Nephthys technically was in the Nile right now – she is."

It was a pause as we realized (thanks to the grimace on uncle Amos' face) that we were currently talking to Set.

"Nephthys always was in denial," Set was continuing. "She denied that Osiris had ever cared for anyone beyond Isis, you see."

I took a deep breath, but before I could say anything, Walt, or rather Anubis beat me to it.

"Father," he said in a frostier tone than I ever heard Walt use. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello, _son_," Set said brightly as he whirled around and used uncle Amos' magical staff to hook Anubis by Walt's collar. "Long time no see you either!"

"Father, I'm warning you-"

"Relax, son," Set continued to smile his trademark smile – on uncle Amos's face it looked twice as creepy, actually. "I shall not humiliate you before your girlfriend."

Anubis glared and grabbed uncle Amos' staff – and it began to deteriorate before our eyes.

Set looked and twitched his eyebrows – and the staff was as good as before. "No," Set said firmly, "you have never come close to be in my league, son, and your host," he gave Walt a good look-over, "is actually cursed? Remarkable, you have actually removed a part of a curse to make room for yourself. Interesting. Very well, here's my part of the curse that I remove – from the goodness of my heart." He grinned in a way that made everyone doubt his sincerity: the last time he smiled like that was when Sadie accused him of being faithless, ruthless, vile and so on, just after his red pyramid scheme failed epically.

Anubis was not very happy either. "You're not meddling in my affairs!" He shouted in a very upset tone of voice as he almost jumped up and down from all the nervous excitement. "And your heart has no goodness!"

"Perhaps not," Set said brightly, "but meddling in affairs of others is what I do best. Deal with it."

Anubis twitched as if he tried to become a jackal while still being in Walt, and Sadie-

"Enough!"

OK, Zia had enough too. "Is there any good reasons as to why you are here, Evil Day?" she looked at Set and one could almost see the fire of Ra within her.

"This is my wife we're talking about," Set toned it down a bit – apparently he could see it too, and for all of his evil, he was loyal to Ra. "I cannot just take a back seat while my host is getting chewed-up by upstart gnomes and what-not."

"That is kind of sweet, but now isn't the time, Evil Day," Zia did not back down. "Go back from whence you came and return when the time is right?"

"You don't have any powers over me," Set didn't back down, but then another grimace distorted his face. "Oh, very well..." and just like that he was gone.

"Sorry about that," uncle Amos looked really embarrassed.

"Don't mention it," Walt, apparently, was back as well – Anubis backed down as well, now that Set was gone.

"Interesting," senhorita Vasquez spoke up. "Why the two of you have passengers within you? That's wrong on so many levels-"

"Yes, well, for me it is worth it," Walt said with more certainty than he usually spoke with, "and as for the Chief Lector-"

"It was a good idea back then," uncle Amos shook his head. "And now, well, Set and I we have our agreement..."

"You're stuck," senhorita Vasquez said flatly. "That's why father never liked the House of Life. Ah well. When we'll be there yet, wherever 'there' is?"

"Well, actually-"

And then Nephthys' underwater palace appeared from the gloom.

_TBC_


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

Carter Kane

Nephthys' palace was beautiful and elegant beyond anything I can come up with for two reasons. Firstly it had a somewhat illusory, not-quite-there feel, rather like the reflection of sunlight on water – you know that the reflection of the sun is there, you can see it there, but you cannot really describe it: I certainly cannot. And Nephthys' palace had the same quality; it was and was not there at the same time.

"Wow!" somebody said behind me. I think it was Sadie. Or Zia.

It was then that the second reason why I cannot describe Nephthys' palace manifested itself: Apophis. Well, his shadow at least, and unlike everything else around us it was quite solid and here: a solid line of inky blackness that blotted all of the color and light around it.

"Didn't we banish you already?" I snapped: after Set's visit my temper was short.

"You can't banish me, little pharaoh," Apophis hissed/laughed inside our heads. "I am Chaos, the counterpart of Order, the shadow of Egypt, and I am always present."

"Then be present somewhere else," I suggested. "Back at the North Pole, for example. Or at least in Mexico."

"No! I like it here! You can't make me go!" Apophis snapped before he caught himself.

"We _can't_?" even Sadie caught onto the Serpent's slip. "We already banished you from the world; all that is left is your shadow, so why can't you concede us this one and leave?"

"Because I got Nephthys!" Apophis hissed, now sounding triumphant once more. "She was sorry for herself, she desired what she couldn't have – pardon me, _whom_ she couldn't have and who in the end preferred the company of a ghost to her – and I came upon her when the rest of the Duat wasn't present and took over. You cannot save her!"

"Excuse me, Chief Lector," Walt spoke up in the same polite tone of voice that Sadie tends to use when she does something crazy. "Can I borrow your staff?"

"Will you be able to return it?" uncle Amos had also remembered Sadie at this moment.

"..."

"Fine. But this is the only time, young man."

"Thank you." The last words were said by Anubis, rather than Walt, as he took uncle Amos staff and it glowed some sort of a dark grey color – the color of Anubis' magic.

And then Walt/Anubis hit Apophis in the face with it so hard that the serpent's head rocked back... but that was it.

Uncle Amos' staff, on the other hand, resembled a cigarette's butt: much shorter than what it was once and still smoking.

"Want to try again?" Apophis hissed as he flicked his tongue. "You cannot hurt me, little god! I am Apophis! I am the shadow of Egypt! Gods tremble at my sight-"

"Excuse me," senhorita Vasquez carefully approached Walt with Zia in tow. "Can _we_ now try something?"

"Your puny tricks cannot do anything!" Apophis hissed, but now he sounded more worried than confident. "I am-"

"We know," senhorita Vasquez said wearily. "You are shadow; you are negative energy, not unlike the power of Anubis. Let's see how you handle this!" and both of them grabbed Apophis by neck instead.

Zia Rashid

The world flickered. One moment we were grabbing Apophis' inky-black neck, the next we were inside it, in a colored, flickering sphere that contained lady Nephthys – and she wasn't happy to see us.

"Ra," she said with bitterness, "the God of Kings. Come to mock me?" and she was looking at me as she said that.

Instinctively, I bristled. The time when I was the host of Nephthys and Ra was still a blur to me and probably always will be, but I did not enjoy it either; I opened my mouth to say this... when a flicker of warmth went through me and chased away the chill I didn't know I was feeling.

"No," my companion said instead. "We've come to get you out of Apophis instead. He is not good company for anybody."

"Is he? Just like him, I am alone-"

"Well, actually, your son and husband are on the other end: they were the ones that got the House of Life involved," I spoke up.

"...What? Since when does Set care about me?" Nephthys stared.

"He is your lord husband, you are his lady wife, you have had a son together already," I shrugged. "Of course he cares about you."

"Since when?" Nephthys stood up and began to walk about. "He is Set, the Father of Jackals-"

"And you're the mother, I suppose," my companion spoke up. "And furthermore, what's wrong with jackals? There are worse animals out there, like the hyenas, for example."

Nephthys stared. "You are a very strange woman."

"My father is the high priest of Sobek, and my mother is something else. Of course I'm strange," senhorita Vasquez shrugged. "But even my father and his god were respectful of you, the Avenging Mother, the Lady of Waters and highly so. There is no reason why you should be staying with some powerless shadow that just draws its strength from you."

"And whom should I be staying with? You?" Nephthys snapped as she approached senhorita Vasquez.

"I am a Sobekite – if you are powerful enough to handle me, go right ahead," the latter smirked.

Lady Nephthys' eyes and mouth formed a trio of indignant O-s that quickly formed into a glare as she reached out and grabbed her other interlocutrix – and there was light.

_TBC_


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

Sadie Kane

...One thing that we all – especially Carter – probably have most of issues, if not _the_ most is speed. No, seriously! Our race to save the world from Apophis really was a race as we raced all over the world – here, there and everywhere; Phineas Fogg with his plan to around the world in 80 days was a slowpoke compared to us.

(Yes, Carter, I do read... on occasion. The fact that the people in House of Life appear to _really_ like Jules Verne and have quite a few of his books in their libraries helps.)

That said our latest action/move happened too fast even for my tastes: one moment we were on uncle Amos' – or Chief Lector's – magical boat underwater, the next – we were on the surface without any boat beneath us, floundering in the murky Amazon waters.

Ok, not really floundering: first uncle Amos pulled that quirky walking-on-waters trick and then he helped senhorita Vasquez to stand up as well.

"Um, what about the rest of us?" Carter said quietly as he tried to remember the spell as well but failed under pressure – I did not even try.

"Hello, sis."

"...Joaquin, you ninja," senhorita Vasquez said almost fondly. "You weren't in any trouble at all, were you?"

"..."

"If it wasn't for your partner you'd be in your House already?" senhorita continued to speak in the manner that really made think of someone familiar, someone who had an exasperating know-it-all brother herself.

"...Maybe."

"Ok. Now please get your fellow magicians out of the water or I swear that I feed your clothes to mother's latest pet! You have the Chief Lector himself of your House here-"

"Relax, sister, I'm on it."

And apparently Joaquin really was on it, as we emerged from the water sitting on backs of-

"Are these sharks?"

"Yes."

"But aren't we really far away from the ocean?"

"Bull sharks – they can live in fresh water as well."

"Oh."

Some time later we were back on dry land. Surprisingly – or not, because we were dealing with gods and spirits and Apophis (again!) it appeared that we did not really go that far up or down stream again from the local nome, which was ok. The fact that the magicians we were supposed to be rescued were not that much worse for wear was... less ok. Fine, it was annoying to everyone, even to Walt who had a rough day, especially with Anubis and Set dropping in earlier.

To make matters worse, senhor Vasquez the younger was the sort of a respectful, even-tempered, all-around-nice fellow that it was impossible to hate or even be exasperated with. "So you see, senhor Kane, it was really our fault that we were unable to contact you in time," he was saying. "Escaping from the lady Nephthys was possible – to a degree – but it cost a certain price. We-"

"Really should talk to father. And mother," senhorita Vasquez spoke up as she emerged from the nome once again – well, half-emerged as she looked from the hole that I made. "They're even more worried than the Chief Lector here."

Joaquin sighed. "Tiki?" he called out to his partner, and no, I am not talking about just their station in the nome – I think. "We really need to speak to parents."

"Fine."

"You can borrow my vehicle," senhorita Vasquez said brightly, "if your gnome friends had eaten it or anything."

"Gnomes don't eat boats and you know it," her brother shook his head. "Good luck sis and don't try to deplete my supplies too badly; see you around!"

And the two men were gone.

Uncle Amos turned to the senhorita in a rather annoyed manner. "That's not how the House does this!" he said crossly.

"Yes, yes, I got absinthe," was the _purposefully carefree_ reply. "That how _our_ family does things: we rescue each other, then the rescued goes to explain it to parents while the rescuer gets something in reply. In this case it was absinthe. You want to get drunk with me?"

There was a profound pause as we stared at her. "Please tell me that that's lady Nephthys' influence," Zia muttered quietly to Carter. "Either that, or the Western culture-"

"She now hosts lady Nephthys? Of course," uncle Amos muttered back instead. "Zia, remind me to give you the scroll about the pessimistic philosophy of the Sobekites when we get back. Meanwhile," he turned back to senhorita Vasquez, "you're already trying to put it behind according to your creed, don't you?"

"Yes," came the reply. "I am. Why shouldn't I? After all, all things come to an end, even," she grimaced, "my love for Osiris, it seems."

"Yes, well, why don't we go to Memphis instead? Thoth is throwing a party there."

It took the rest of us several moments to realize that we were back with the gods, including, probably Anubis, because Walt would not have stared as Set and Nephthys so intently.

"Memphis? This place was backwater even when your beard wasn't."

"Set had a **beard**?" I asked before I could help myself. (Yes, Carter, I do that some times, ha-ha.)

"I shaved," Set gave me a look. "And I'm not talking Memphis Egypt, but Memphis United States. It's actually still new and what-not."

"Very well, we shall go there. Coming, child?" Nephthys gave Anubis a sort-of motherly look.

"Sure!" Anubis said brightly; he grabbed Nephthys and Set by their hands and-

-and we were left with three rather confused people standing on the shore.

"New plan – screw the booze, I feel like I had too much of it already," senhorita Vasquez muttered. "What has happened? Seriously?"

I opened my mouth. Zia, of all people, stepped onto my foot and began to explain instead.

_TBC_


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

"Set! Father of Jackals!" the voice of Horus, the Pharaoh of the Gods was like that of a war trumpet only much louder. "Where are you, you Evil day?"

"Horus! And Shu! And Tefnut too, I guess," Set said brightly as he and Nephthys (and a reluctant-looking Anubis) were sitting at a foot of a pyramid. "Have you also come for the BBQ?"

"...What BBQ?" Horus asked after a pause. "Set, what is going on here?"

"Well, after Shu over there pointed out to me that my lady wife wasn't in the Duat I went looking for her here," Set said brightly, "and I found her, and now we're having some family time, here, in Memphis, if you don't mind."

"Memphis? This place was old before us," Horus was backing down – slightly.

"Not Memphis _Egypt_, Memphis _USA_ – besides, Thoth has invited us to his party-"

"Thoth?" Horus looked around. Sure enough, there was Thoth, doing the actual BBQ'ing of the meat (and vegetables) alongside his baboons... those that were not playing basketball with Babi. Nekhbet was acting as a judge. Some distance away Bast and Serqet were going through one of their long arguments and beyond them...

Sobek emerged from the Mississippi river. "Done," he grunted in his usual manner.

"What's done?" Horus mechanically asked.

"The latest damage Apophis' shadow tried to inflict on Ma'at," the crocodile god said simply, before adding: "o Great House. Are you here for Thoth's party as well?"

"No," Horus said crossly. "Thoth!"

"Yes?" the god of knowledge carefully looked at his superior.

"Next time you throw a party at your place, try to notify us as well – otherwise it just gets confusing. Where are Bes and Tawaret? Here as well?"

"No, in Brazil, dealing with hippos," Set said flippantly.

Horus glared. "There are no hippos in South America!"

"There are now. A bunch of drug lords had them as pets – then the lords went down and the hippos escaped into the wild and were on their own for a while. Still are, though Tawaret probably has a plan as to what to do about them."

"Wow. That places sounds – and looks – more and more like home every day," Horus said, slightly wistfully, before turning to Shu. "Yet there was no reason for you to drag us here – Thoth's parties are an acceptable alternative, remember, oh god of wind?"

"Yes, my lord," Shu muttered as he and Horus (and also Tefnut, though it was hard to say – Shu's wife tended to blend with the background a lot and consequently was very hard to notice) went back into the Duat.

"And we're back," Set said brightly, and the impromptu party continued.

"Walt, are you decent? Can I come in?"

"Yes, Sadie. What is up? You have recovered-"

"Let's just that Carter and I had had enough of each other's company for a while – recording our adventures does tend to strain our relationship, ironically enough – and I came to check on you. With Anubis being elsewhere-"

"Sadie. I'm not yet at the point where I can drop dead at any minute, honestly!" Walt almost wailed in exasperation. "Plus Anubis has sort of left a bit of himself – sort of a nominal stand-in, really-"

"He can do that?"

"All gods can – leave a nominal presence of their essence in their hosts and go back to the Duat or vice versa. So Anubis is in me still, somewhat, and will probably returning to me in the future: hanging around with your parents can be quite annoying from time to time."

"No, really?" Sadie muttered. "Anyways, um, speaking of hanging around, you think that senhorita Vasquez will?"

"I have no idea. She is a Sobekite, and they are quite fatalistic: when something is done it is gone, and you cannot have it over again. She probably thinks that her adventure with us is done and gone and so are we in her life-"

"Not if uncle Amos persuades her otherwise – I hope," Sadie said with a giggle but then turned serious. "Of course I think that he has problems with ladies – just like Carter. Want to go and spy on them?" she asked Walt just as the latter was taking a drink – and it was promptly spat out.

"Sadie! You can't just go and spy on the Chief Lector and his not-quite-a-date!" he flailed his arms once again. "That's just wrong!"

"Really? Then I guess I just go and do that on my own," Sadie said theatrically and left.

Walt caught up to her after several minutes.

"Fine, I'll go to keep you out of trouble!"

"Yay!" Sadie said brightly – and things in the Twenty-First nome were back to normal.

End


End file.
